Directi Disclaims Allegations in Knujon/Hostexploit Reports

Bhavin Turakhia, CEO, Directi has presented a strong challenge to all claims in the Knujon and Hostexploit report that falsely implicate Directi's involvement with unethical online activities.

Knujon and Hostexploit had published online reports linking Directi to certain miscreants responsible for fraudulent activities on the Internet.

"It's reports and claims like these that are disappointing to any white hat, genuinely conscientious Registrar, wherein despite our continuous efforts, organizations such as Knujon and HostExploit publish libelous and false allegations without even attempting to verify facts. Even a basic common courtesy of contacting us was not extended prior to publishing these reports." said Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of Directi.

A post on Directi's Blog categorically refutes every single claim that links Directi to the reports, and requests the media to verify the facts before publishing, or drawing conclusions from either report. While Hostexploit is still to respond, the Knujon report has subsequently rectified some of the incorrect conclusions it drew about Directiis involvement in the illegal online pharmacy racket.

The reports speculate that Directi owns East European Registrar, EST domains. Directi has gone on record stating that it does not own, nor control the actions of EST Domains.

The reports claim amongst other things that Directi has a business association with Atrivo (a web hosting company which purportedly supports illegal activities on the internet). To this too, Bhavin has firmly stated, "Atrivo is not associated with Directi, not hosted with Directi, nor have they registered their domain name through Directi, nor are they a Customer or a Vendor of Directi. The Directi Group does not have, and has never had, any association with either Atrivo or their business practices. The report shows no evidence of any such association."

The reports make further claims with respect to the usage of Directi's privacy protection services by illegal websites. Bhavin asserts that the service safeguards millions of genuine domain owners from the very threats that KnujOn also actively combats. "Privacy protection ensures that miscreants cannot parse the contact information of genuine domain registrants for spamming them or launching a phishing attack," says Bhavin. "While a certain number of miscreants can use the privacy protection services to mask their identity, this constitutes a very small percentage in comparison to genuine customers who use this service and are thankful for it. Our abuse department ensures that privacy protection is suspended for any domain proven to indulge in any abusive activity."

The report further labels 48 Registrars belonging to Directi and its clients as 'phantom' and that 'none of them really exist'. An ICANN representative later confirmed that all of the registrars are duly incorporated, validly existing under law, with active contact details.

Bhavin pledges that Directi continues to be one of the most proactive Registrars in combating abuse and implementing strict AUPs. He also claims that Directi has made substantial investments to ensure that its services are not used for any nefarious purposes, and that its core values are based on the ideology of making the internet a safer and more secure medium for conducting business.

"While I applaud the efforts of volunteers such as Knujon and Hostexploit who spend their personal time to try and combat spam, I am personally quite saddened when the very individuals who we trust to combat spam and fraud, engage in publicity moves without consideration for the reputation of legitimate businesses." said Bhavin

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